Current viewers of direct broadcast satellite receivers, such as RCA® DSS® receivers, manufactured and marketed by Thomson Consumer Electronics of Indiana, U.S.A., have the benefit of being able order pay-per-view movies from their receivers. This allows viewers to conveniently view a movie whenever they desire.
To prevent excessive spending by, for example, household members of a subscriber of the above system, the subscriber is provided with a “spending limit” capability as shown, for example, in FIG. 1A or 1B. In FIG. 1A, the spending limit capability can be accessed by selecting one of the user profiles 2-6 of the system, as part of the spending limit submenu selection for the system. In the alternative, the subscriber may access the spending limit option by selecting the user profile editing submenu for a particular user profile and then select the spending limit option 7, as shown in FIG. 1B. In either case, the system currently provides only a “per event” spending limit option.